Friday, March 11, 2011

earthquakes

I woke this morning to the news of the earthquake in Japan. Since I was a child during the Alaskan earthquake, I have TERROR of earthquakes, and I tremble to know what those people are going through. And, although the shaking of the earth is bad enough (the feeling that something you depend on to be STILL, isn't), what comes after is worse. It's the aftershocks that wake you over and over in the night and the following days and send you frantically running for the door. It's the fear of broken gas lines and falling buildings. It's roads that have broken up so that they are impassable. It's no heat or light in the cold, dark winter. In the Alaskan quake, before the days of cell phones, it was hours or longer of not knowing where your loved ones were. It was melting snow for water and adding bleach to make sure it was safe. As a girl, I liked the no-school part and the eat-the-melting-ice-cream-for-dinner-and-breakfast part. But I was also old enough to listen to the radio broadcasting calls for lost relatives and know that some of those people would never be found. And then the waiting for the tidal wave and wondering if it would reach us or people we knew and what that would mean for us. I am a grandmother now. Many years have passed since that quake in Alaska (what I was reminded this morning was the second largest one of modern times), but I am still shaken--emotionally--when I hear news of these huge earthquakes and think of the people involved. I am reminded, again, of the fragility of life.

4 comments:

  1. Your last line is what I was thinking today, seeing blinking blue lights on an accident scene on an icy road on my way home. I didn't see an ambulance so I hope that people were not hurt. I got home, filled with little slices of simple daily life, when my sister called and started talking about the earthquake. I have never experienced one. Your slice touched me.

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  2. Thank you for sharing this. Your memories and explanation of how the events of the past day have brought them back help those of us who've never experienced something like this have a deeper sense of empathy for those who have.

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  3. Wow, I didn't know you grew up in Alaska! I don't think I've ever read that vivid of a description of an earthquake.

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  4. I didn't know that you were up there during the '64 quake Dr. Dean! Wow, I had the biggest fear of earthquakes growing up too, but I never saw a huge one. They still scare me though...I can't imagine what people in Sendai felt yesterday.

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